Archives for July, 2009

I absolutely guarantee that the President wanted a fine, handcrafted American ale. But I am certain that the conservative press would’ve jumped this as an “elitist” choice as they did his campaign comments on arugula. Instead, he chose Bud Light. The President had a choice to promote the craft-brewing industry in the US – the…

We’ve spoken here every few months about so-called natural dietary supplements being adulterated with prescription drugs used for similar indications. The most common of these of late have been erectile dysfunction supplements which have been repeatedly found to contain the active compounds present in prescription E.D. products such as Viagra and Cialis. The latest public…

[This 23rd July entry is being reposted today under the ScienceBlogs “Education” channel as its original categorization there fell victim to gremlins in the upgraded Movable Type script.] At the outset, let me say that I have immense respect and admiration for a special commenter. In last week’s Friday Fermentable post, we took the 40th…

In the United States, herbal and non-herbal dietary supplements can be sold without any assurance of safety or efficacy as a result of a hastily-passed, late-night, final-session piece of legislation put forth by Sen Orrin Hatch (R-Utah). (Aside: Utah has several large dietary supplement manufacturers.) This piece of legislation is named the Dietary Supplement Health…

Well, a week has passed since I first issued a call for posts for the August Scientiae Carnival with the theme “Summer Days, Driftin’ Away.” Consider how you balance the demands and pleasures of this season. Have you found ways to make progress on your must-dos while also taking time for your family, friends –…

For those of you who read only Terra Sig and not others at ScienceBlogs (post-morning coffee delusions of grandeur), you may not be aware that a number of questionable advertisements have been appearing on the frontpage run by the purveyors of our pontifications. Many of this adverts have been of content diammetrically opposed to what…

No, this is not mean – we all like GrrlScientist, the evolutionary biologist/ornithologist and freelance science/nature writer who blogs at Living the Scientific Life (bio here). But yes, we want to send her to Antarctica. Far away. For a month. There are currently 338 bloggers competing in “Blog Your Way to Antarctica,” a competition sponsored…

My Y chromosome and I are supremely honored to have been invited by skookumchick to host the August edition of Scientiae, the blog carnival of “stories of and from women in science, engineering, technology, and math.” But remember: “Posts are welcome from women and men and everyone in between if they focus on the topic…

Please accept my apologies in advance for taking another edition of The Friday Fermentable to bring you a sober (pun intended) story about alcoholic beverages. The heat, beginning training for a half-marathon, and other stuff have my personal alcohol consumption at nil so I don’t have any recent wine or beer finds to share with…

Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum have released a new book entitled, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future. Mr Mooney and Ms Kirshenbaum also co-author the blog, The Intersection, a Discover Magazine online. I was fortunate to receive a review copy from the publisher but must admit, sheepishly, that the book has sat unread…